"This 'paraquel'—meaning it takes place in the same world, but follows a different thread—to [F.E.] Higgins' excellent Black Book of Secrets drips with the same lightly fantastical, heavily Dickensian atmosphere [for readers 10 and up]. Young Pin Carpue works as a corpse watcher, standing guard in the morgue for three days to ensure that the deceased really are dead and not just sleeping. There, he encounters a 'bone magician' and his pretty young assistant, who claim they can briefly animate the dead so that the living may ask them questions.... There is still no end of picaresque charms, creepy turns, and beguiling cast members (most hilariously the poetry-reciting dwarf who turns to potato-throwing when he discovers it's a more viable line of work)."—Booklist